Contents

Story

Artwork used as the cover art for the game's 1992 Japanese release.

Screenshot from Level 1-1.

The text itself is taken from the instruction booklet for the game;

One evening, Mario had a strange dream. He dreamt of a long, long stairway leading up to a door. As soon as the door opened, he was confronted with a world he had never seen before, spreading out as far as his eyes could see. When he strained his ears to listen, he heard a faint voice saying "Welcome to 'Subcon', the land of dreams. We have been cursed by Wart and we are completely under his evil spell. We have been awaiting your arrival. Please defeat Wart and return Subcon to its natural state. The curse Wart has put on you in the real world will not have any effect upon you here. Remember, Wart hates vegetables. Please help us!

At the same time this was heard, a bolt of lightning flashed before Mario's eyes. Stunned, Mario lost his footing and tumbled upside down. He awoke with a start to find himself sitting up in his bed. To clear his head, Mario talked to Luigi, Toad and the Princess about the strange dream he had. They decide to go to a nearby mountain for a picnic. After arriving at the picnic area and looking at the scenery, they see a small cave nearby. When they enter this cave, to their great surprise, there's a stairway leading up, up and up. It is exactly like the one Mario saw in his dream. They all walk together up the stairs and at the top, find a door just like the one in Mario's dream. When Mario and his friends, in fear, open the door, to their surprise, the world that he saw in his dream spreads out before them!...

In the end of the game, Mario and co. trounce Wart and open a hidden room containing one of Subcon's characteristic vases where a cork can be found inside. When the cork is pulled from the mouth of the vase, eight red Subcon spring out. The four heroes are lauded for defeating Wart, whose beaten body is passed over the crowd and tossed aside. Immediately after, the screen shows Mario snoring, meaning that the entire adventure had been a dream all along.

The Princess does not excel in speed or power, with a two for both statistics. Her jump, though, is only a three. To make up for these average statistics, Peach has the ability to float in the air for one and a half seconds, making her jumping skill having an advantage in a horizontal way.

Innovations and Oddities

Errors

In the instruction manual, Birdo's description is "He thinks he's a girl and shoots eggs from his mouth. He'd rather be called Birdetta". Ever since, Birdo has been depicted as female outside of Japan, although, Birdo, (named Catherine in Japan) has always been a boy who thinks he's a girl in Japan.

As part of the process of converting the game into Super Mario Bros. 2, Phanto was given an updated appearance, featuring a menacing grin. However, the game's instruction manual depicts the character's Doki Doki Panic appearance.

In the credits, many enemies have spelling mistakes in their names with Hoopster listed as Hoopstar, Tryclyde listed as Triclyde, Birdo and Ostro's names switched (same in the manual), and Clawgrip being listed as Clawglip. Birdo and Ostro's names remain switched in the Super Mario All-Stars remake, while the names are correctly matched in Super Mario Advance. Despite being an enemy, Whale did not appear in the credits.

When the vegetables are picked from the ground, they are coloured black on their tufts, rather than red with black outlining before being picked. As the vegetable tufts were black even before being picked in Doki Doki Panic, this error does not apply for this version.

Innovations

It was the first Mario game to feature Luigi as being taller and slimmer than Mario due to the character models they had to work with. It was also the first game to feature Peach and Toad as playable characters, as well as the first to feature Peach as not being the damsel in distress in this game.

The game was the first Mario game outside of Japan to offer a choice of characters, with Mario's abilities being average and balanced. Mario would continue to be defined as a balanced all around character in later games, most notably in the Mario Kart, Mario Sports, and Smash Bros. series.

It introduced the jackpot feature, where three Mario-related symbols could be lined up for prizes. In this game, it resulted in a 1-up. It was continued for Super Mario Bros. 3 where at the end of each stage a block could be hit and a random card would be acquired. Acquiring three of the same cards resulted in multiple 1-ups and a dramatic screen featuring a giant picture of the card. No matches, one of each symbol or two of the three symbols matching simply resulted in a single 1-up. In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, the cards were occasionally used to power up health points with all Mushrooms, flower points with all flowers, Star Points with all Starman, and fill everything with all Shine Sprites.

It marked the final appearance of Mario's original color scheme (blue shirt and red overalls) and the only appearance of Luigi's inverted color scheme of his traditional colors (blue shirt and green overalls). After this game, the colors of their shirt and overalls are swapped (Mario has red shirt and blue overalls and Luigi has green shirt and blue overalls).

Development

The Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2 was released in 1986 for the Famicom Disk System, a Japan-only disk-based add-on for the Famicom under the name Super Mario Bros. 2. It featured the same gameplay and similar level design as the original Super Mario Bros., with the addition of Poison Mushrooms and a much higher difficulty level (through trickier jumps, timing challenges, tougher obstacles, etc.) than the first game.

As Super Mario Bros. 2 was created by making small changes to a Japanese game called Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic, it is considered a unique addition to the Mario series. Various Nintendo of America employees personally disliked the original Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2, which they found to be frustratingly difficult. Believing such a game would likely sell poorly in the United States, they wanted to release a different sequel they thought would be friendlier to English audiences. Although Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic was originally set in a storybook and a theme completely unrelated to Mario, it was modified to use sprites and music that would fit with the series. As such, it is sometimes stated that the game is not a "proper" Mario game.

The NTSC and PAL version of Super Mario Bros. 2 was eventually released in Japan for the Famicom under the name Super Mario USA. It was also released as part of Super Mario All-Stars (Super Mario Collection in Japan).